title: Immortalized mouse dental papilla mesenchymal cells preserve odontoblastic phenotype and respond to bone morphogenetic protein 2.
abstract: Odontogenesis is the result of the reciprocal interactions between epithelial-mesenchymal cells leading to terminally differentiated odontoblasts. This process from dental papilla mesenchymal cells to odontoblasts is regulated by a complex signaling pathway. When isolated from the developing tooth germs, odontoblasts quickly lose their potential to maintain the odontoblast-specific phenotype. Therefore, generation of an odontoblast-like cell line would be a good surrogate model for studying the dental mesenchymal cell differentiation into odontoblasts and the molecular events of dentin formation. In this study, immortalized dental papilla mesenchymal cell lines were generated from the first mouse mandibular molars at postnatal day 3 using pSV40. These transformed cells were characterized by RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and analyzed for alkaline phosphatase activity and mineralization nodule formation. One of these immortalized cell lines, iMDP-3, displayed a high proliferation rate, but retained the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics similar to primary cells as determined by expression of tooth-specific markers and demonstrated the ability to differentiate and form mineralized nodules. Furthermore, iMDP-3 cells had high transfection efficiency as well as were inducible and responded to BMP2 stimulation. We conclude that the establishment of the stable murine dental papilla mesenchymal cell line might be used for studying the mechanisms of dental cell differentiation and dentin formation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Dentistry, Dental School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, TX, 78229-3900, USA.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Li-An
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Wentong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Qingping
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Hui-Hsiu
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shoff
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shuo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000957:Antigens, Viral, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics; D002478:Cells, Cultured / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism; D003771:Dental Papilla / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D006801:Humans; D008648:Mesoderm / Q000166:cytology* / Q000254:growth & development; D051379:Mice; D009804:Odontoblasts / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D009805:Odontogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D014070:Tooth / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D014162:Transfection
chemical_list: D000957:Antigens, Viral, Tumor; C525718:BMP2 protein, human; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2